"Let food be your medicine.....

....and medicine be your food."

These were the words of Hippocrates in 400 BC. I've really been thinking about those words lately, and what they might mean for our family. We aren't a total junk food family, but neither are we a pure, health food family. My goal for this year is to pay closer attention to what our family is eating and re-shape our tastes if necessary so that we will crave wholesome, healthy, natural foods, and then we can start to tip the scale on the "pure and healthy" side. With Clara, it will be easy. We're simply shaping her tastes since she has not been exposed to the junk food that the rest of us have been eating. But the boys will take a little more time to win over. They like Fruity Pebbles and Go-gurt and Pop Tarts. I'm on a mission to change their tastes to whole grain cereals (adding fruit to sweeten naturally), plain yogurt (which doesn't have the added sugar and artificial colorings), and making our own homemade sweets instead of buying the junk food in boxes. Reading labels will be part of life. Buying organic when possible is also on the shopping list.

When we check the labels we are looking for these three villains:

1. high-fructose corn syrup
2. artificial coloring that has a number symbol attached to it
3. hydrogenated oils or trans fats

I read that if we just avoid these three items, we'll have de-junked our diets by 90%! I want to teach my children that bad foods will make them feel bad, and that good foods will make them feel good. It will require a lot of willpower, to choose a snack of carrot sticks instead of gummy worms. Awareness is the key! If I can at least help them understand the differences between healthy "grow foods" and the junky, sugary "fake foods," I will have won at least half the battle.

I am also looking for ways to make meals more nutritious. I read on the package of whole wheat flour that it can easily be used in recipes by using equal amounts of whole wheat and all purpose flour (unbleached!) Another interesting item to add is wheat germ or flaxseed meal. These changes are hardly detected but will boost the nutritional value of homebaked goodies. Instead of buying muffin mixes which contain artificial flavorings and other unwanted additives, we will be making our own homemade muffins with real fruit added. These are treats I can feel good about giving to the baby. And to our growing boys. They like to help make them too! We are also switching to whole grain pastas. I have tried these before in spaghetti, but I used all whole wheat and the change was too noticeable to everyone. There were complaints. Last week when I made baked linguine, I used half regular noodles and half whole wheat. No one even knew it. I couldn't really tell the difference myself in the way it tasted, but I knew it was better to have the whole grains in our food.

We hardly ever have soda in the house. Instead, we like to drink iced tea, water, juice or milk. To boost the antioxidant levels of our iced tea, we add several bags of green tea to the regular tea when brewing. We started juicing our own fruits and vegetables last year with the juicer I purchased online...and love the taste of fresh juice that does not contain any additives and has not been pastureized.

If the junk food isn't in the house, we'll be forced to eat real food. I don't expect that we'll be healthy eaters overnight, but little by little, we can incorporate these changes and slowly adjust our habits and our tastes. Of course, doctors and the medicine they prescribe are sometimes absolutley necessary, and I don't have a doubt in my mind about it. But I do believe that if we are feeding our bodies the healthy food that it needs, (and this is especially true of children and their growing bodies,) we may be able to avoid certain illnesses and problems that are aggravated and/or caused by our junk food diets. This is exciting to me!

Healthy food... Healthy children... Healthy future!

A Homeschool Resource Meme:

Thanks to Princess Ruby for tagging me to do a Meme....

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED: Boy, there are a bunch of 'em on my bookshelf that I wouldn't want to be without, but my favorite is probably "Educating the WholeHearted Child," by Clay and Sally Clarkson. I love the quotes in the margins, the practical advice, and the encouragement and new ideas I receive every time I pick it up.
Can't help it, but I've also got to mention "Better Late Than Early," by Raymond Moore. He observes from his research that there is no systematic evidence that supports the need for preschool for the child who has a good home. Great book!

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT: I'd have to agree with Princess Ruby on this one. It is the computer that I don't want to be without. Especially here in Croatia, where we cannot run to the local library for resources, it is a lifesaver to run to the internet and google our questions. And in the comfort of our own home! Amazing!

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT: BJU's DVD's. Ack!!!!

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR: "A Child's Story of America," from Christian Liberty Press. Both my boys read it cover to cover and not only learned well from its story approach, but enjoyed it, too.

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR: I think we'll drop BJU math and go back to Saxon.

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY: You should see the things I circled in the CBD Homeschool catalog I got in the mail recently.... learning games, books for me, books for the kids....

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED: a homeschool CO-OP here in Croatia

8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING: The Classical Teacher (from Memoria Press), for its motivational articles... and the above-mentioned CBD catalog for their great sales and wide selection of materials.

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY: I like Homeschool World

10) TAG OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS: Not officially tagging anyone this time-- if you want to do it, go for it! (And make sure you let me know so I can read your list!)

Scenic Slovenia

I guess you could sue me for false advertising...but I hope you won't.

In my last entry I wrote of my excitement about visiting Lake Bled. A friend here suggested that place to us, so we researched it on the internet, but we ended up deciding to stay in a small town just a little north of Bled. Of course, I KNEW THAT when I wrote about it, but my brain got stuck on the idea of going to Bled, and I was convinced we were still going there. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with me, but I think this same brain malfunction caused me to send two wedding cards to a friend. At first, I filled out a card way ahead of the actual wedding date, then set it on my desk, ready to be mailed at the appointed time. The time came and went, and in the meantime, the card disappeared mysteriously. I emailed this friend to ask if she had received the card, thinking it had been mailed by someone else in our house, but this was not the case. I guess I filled out another card and mailed it to her. A couple weeks passed by, and lo and behold, the missing card shows up in the bottom of a drawer where it must have landed after falling from the desk. And not remembering that I'd already sent dear married-by-now-friend a card, I sent her ANOTHER one! Isn't SHE special? That's what she said when she emailed me and thanked me for BOTH of her wedding cards.

All that to say, I think I'm starting to worry about me.

And now, onto the rest of the story....

Kranjska Gora, a small village at the foot of the Julian Alps, was a quiet place to kick off our boots and rest awhile. That is, Clara and I rested, while Dad and the boys tromped off to the mountain everyday and skied to their hearts content.


There was no real snow while we were there, only the artificial snow from the snow cannons covering the slopes. It has been a warm and green winter in most of Europe! The little town was hopping though, with excitement over the women's slalom event being held that weekend. I believe an Austrian took first place.



We stayed at this Bed and Breakfast, owned by a very friendly Slovenian couple.


Breakfast was a mix of coffee or tea, orange juice, fruits, croissants, cereal, bread, cheese, tomatoes, sliced cold cuts and yogurt. My favorite part of traveling in Europe is staying at B&B's. In the U.S., I thought of them as romantic getaways. But here I find it an interesting way to meet the locals and find out what the people in any given area are really like. They are so hospitable and kind, can usually converse well in English, and they provide many helpful travel tips. When we leave a B&B, we feel like we are leaving friends. Case in point, the couple from the B&B we stayed at while visiting Italy last year sent birthday greetings to Clara ON her birthday. I do not even recall sharing what her birth date was with them, but they remembered and they wrote us.

One afternoon, Clara and I went walking around the town and discovered this little bakery, called Kala....



It was the most beautifully decorated bakery I've ever been in. The walls were a soft yellow, and paintings of flowers graced the interior. A cappuccino machine brought forth a magnificent cup of "white coffee," and paired with a slice of warm apple tart that Clara and I shared all made for a memorable occasion. I really felt like I was on my first "date" with my daughter. It was a place I would have taken my mother. It's the little things in life that mean so much!


We visited Papa Joe's Pizzeria a couple times.



This was both fun, and frustrating. We discovered very few restaurants in Slovenia, and this is true also of Croatia, that have high chairs for babies. Clara is in the "discovery of all things wonderful" stage, and this includes all areas of restaurants, under the tables and everything on the floor. There definitely is nothing of interest at the table we have chosen to sit at, so why should she be forced to sit there? (Her logic, not mine.) Eating is one thing. She prefers to sit in our lap and do her eating from our plates. But a baby doesn't eat for long, and she sure doesn't sit there and wait patiently for food to arrive when there is so much exploring that needs to be done. The first night in town, after ordering our food and seeing that eating out was going to be a horrid adventure, I gathered up little girl and we walked back to our room. The guys brought our food later and we ate our pizza in the comfort of our bedroom!


The downtown area was a pedestrian only part of town. This is a good idea, I think. I wish more of our towns in the U.S. were set up like this. It's good to stroll down the cobblestone streets, gaze in store windows, or sit on a bench and have a look at this old church without having cars zoom by and disrupt your thoughts or mess up your hair.



There you have it. Scenic Slovenia. I want to go back. Wanna come with me?

Next Stop:

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Our main purpose for this little adventure is to provide the boys in this family (both the little ones and the BIG one) a chance to do some skiing. I may squeeze in a couple hours myself, but I am afraid it will be more falling than actual skiing. Clara and I will stomp around in the snow together (this will be her first encounter with the fluffy, white stuff), sightsee, and maybe see if she is interested in sledding! We have heard that Lake Bled, in spite of its gory sounding name, is actually a very beautiful place. I can't wait to see it! I'm sure there will be many sights worth photographing and sharing with you later.

Hope your New Year is off to a grand start!